Well, I know that this took FOREVER to get up...I hope people still like it...

I promise that when SATWE is at the end of the first part, I will focus on this more.

Chapter Two: Freedom In a Caged World

Virtual Reality is interesting.

They have been training us for real combat now. No more sparring; it's now time for war, they say. They hook us up to large machines shaped like globes, designed to give us full range of motion. We hang from cables inside, to help our bodies feel like we are moving across ground or falling. All of it is so baffling, I don't even try to understand it anymore. I simply step up to the machine and put on the helmet. Inside the helmet, I see something unlike anything other. A world of green. There are hulking masses of what they call DIRT and ROCK. Large organic structures are everywhere, called TREES. And the ground is covered in millions of small trees, called GRASS. This is a totally new world for me, as badly rendered as it is. Then there are the mannequins. We are given a virtual gun to shoot at them with. Our main training missions right now are to guard our orbs from enemy fire by taking out the offensive team. That is our team mission. Sometimes we need to do solo missions, in case we were ever left alone. Those aren't too difficult, but we have been kept at a steady level for the moment.

There is also the ship training. Done in a similar machine, except that we are sitting this time, we pilot in a virtual reality space. This was also an interesting journey for me. The space is filled with darkness, and little lights that are called STARS. Our planet is in orbit around a star apparently, but I've never seen it. Our sky is too cloudy to see it, along with the other stars. During the training, we have to shoot at little flying triangles while steering around in space. After all of this, though, I don't remember the mannequins or the triangles or the bullets. I think about the Trees, and the Rocks, and the Sky, and the Stars. It was all amazing. I wonder if there is some place on our planet where the floor is green and fluffy, and the sky is blue, and the clouds are white. I want to sit on the dirt, feel what it's like. I want to sit under a tree, shaded from the starlight. It's all amazing.

All my thoughts always return to the vast expanses of green, though.

My only friend, Rho 33588, thinks I'm being mental. He says that there would be no way for there to be a place like that on our planet, since the acid rain would eat it all up. I sigh each time I hear this. I like the green. VR training is now my favorite lesson, regardless of the poor rendering and the exasperating mannequins.

Our Spine comes up in ten cycles. I am certain that I have perfected Omega's Pain-Reduction Method by now. I recently slammed my head into the wall of my room after preparing myself. I came out with a bloody lump on my head, but I didn't feel any pain on it for 50 millicycles. I've been seeing others doing the same thing lately. Some have even gone as far as cutting off their own fingers or toes. That must have given the medics headaches by reattaching their missing digits. I wonder how much the spine will hurt. I tried hitting my back onto the corner of my desk to see how it might hurt. I was cringing on the floor afterwards, even again after applying the reduction method. I gave up after a while. The pain was inevitable.

This cycle happened to be our tenth cycle of the decacycle, our free day. I didn't have much to do. I wanted to go to the VR machines, but they were restricted from casual use for now. I decided to visit our datastacks for the day. The datastacks were a large collection of information spanning many different species and cultures. According to the datastacks, other cultures might call them "libraries." Whatever they were called, they contained a great amount of interesting knowledge. "Knowledge is power," one of the files said once. I agreed greatly with that statement. As racist as our species could be at times, they had a deep adoration for the literary works and research of other cultures. I was currently adoring a story called "Treasure Island." It was yet another interesting adventure for me; a world filled with water and large rocks which trees grew on. I have almost finished it.

After deciding to stop reading for the moment, I stood up and ran into Rho 33588. I was surprised to see him here.

"Oh, I didn't know you were here, Rho."

"Oh, hey Delta. I was here to study some powerful pain-reduction techniques before next decacycle. What about you?"

"I gave up on that a while ago. It doesn't seem worth it anymore. I was reading this story here."

I handed him the Holo-Scroll for him to look at. It was regularly a simple rod when deactivated. But when turned on, it would project a floating screen out of one side, containing the text of the article. He looked at the title.

"Treasure Island, huh? What's an island?"

"It's a large rock surrounded by water on all sides."

"Wow, that's an enormous amount of water. Is the story good?"

"I think it is, at least. I've almost finished it…"

"Hm. Well, here you go." He handed the rod back, "After I return this, do you want to go do something together?" he asked.

"Um, sure. I need to return this, first…"

I departed from him toward the stack manager by the far desk. Handing him the rod once I got there, he pushed it into a clear tube, which shot it up into the stacks, which would sort it once inside. I walked away from the desk and found Rho a nanocycle later. He nodded to me, and we left the datastacks.

Walking through the corridors together, we spoke to eachother. Simple things, such as leesons and missing fingers and green fuzzy floors. He recommended that we visit the species collection. I thought his might be interesting. We traversed the halls to the tram station. Calling the tram, we waited patiently as it pulled into the station, and then we climbed aboard immediately. Pulling the activation lever, its doors closed, and the tram sped onto the next station, vibrating along the way.

After arriving, we went through more corridors, and we arrived at the species collection. According to the datastacks, other cultures would call this a "zoo."

I looked around for a bit, and then found myself looking at the gronkat tank. Small fuzzy creatures lived inside, with features similar to a creature that was found on other planets, called a "cat." I rather liked them. They had a quality that I couldn't put my finger on. It was similar to likeability, but it was some thing else. My eyes were drawn toward the small green and blue one. I had given this one a makeshift title of "Sampi." I knew that we were eventually allowed to keep a gronkat as a pet, but I wasn't of age yet. In ten cycles, though, I would most certainly ask to have Sampi. Rho walked up behind me, grinning.

"Looking at your little Sampi again?" He asked jokingly.

"Stop it, Rho. I like him. Don't you want a Gronkat?"

"I'd rather have something less hairy. Maybe a despined geemer…"

"Geemers are notorious for causing disease," I said, quoting a bit of information I read at the datastacks, "So you better clean it all the time when you get one." I caught a whiff of putrid air when he lifted his arms. "Though you may need to clean yourself more than it!" I said accusingly.

"Geez, stop it!" he said, he pushed me away jokingly. I pushed back, and we ended up causing a bit of a ruckus, frightening some of the animals. The supervisor saw this, and began to walk toward us menacingly. Seeing this, we escaped in a panic, laughing along the way.

I had known Rho since we were only 5 tricenticycles old. We had been friends through and through for 11 tricenticycles now, never being seperated. I knew that after we got the Spine, I wouldn't see him for a long time. We would be moved to outer colonies after our final cycles of lessons. I wasn't very excited about being seperated from him, but I was interested in seeing new planets. Seeing what was beyond that veil of clouds. Only a few more cycles to go.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!"

I leapt back from Xi 45820 as he shrieked out that terrible noise. My ear-slits now hurt a lot.

"And that's what I screamed when my Spine was put on. Even a tough one like me couldn't take it."

Xi really was a tough one. He had large muscles and a defining jaw. He could even lift ten of us at a time maximum. And he was only four tricenticycles older than me.

"Have you ever felt anything worse than that?" I asked earnestly.

"Not yet. I think the only thing that could be worse is removing it." He said with a grin.

I lurched inside queasily. "That just gave me shivers up and down my back. Wouldn't that remove your spinal cord?"

"Exactly. And that's why it would hurt so much." He whacked my back in the same spot I had stabbed myself with the corner of my desk. I yowled loudly, rubbing the spot tenderly.

"Hahaha! Soft-spine! That's ok, though, you'll soon be a steel-spine like me." He motioned for me to whack his back. I only hurt my own hand.

"Geez. That must be a Bendezium alloy."

"Bendezium-TALLORIC alloy, mister."

"Oh, ok."

"It's gonna hurt, softy. Better practice that Pain-Reduction Method. I recommend opening your Hura and Doto sections to distrubute the energy evenly."

"Hura and Doto? That's going to take a lot of focusing. They aren't even near eachother!"

"They cover your upper and lower spinal cord. It will help prevent much pain. But, it'll still hurt a lot. I had been perfecting my sections for cycles, too."

I grimaced. I wasn't looking forward to this one bit. We both departed from eachother, and I headed towards my room. As I did, however, I was surprised as a group of higher-ups ran past hurriedly. Curious, I followed them eagerly. As I followed them, I heard them talking.

"So, the general is coming today, huh?" one said.

"Yeah...I'm just a bit nervous about this." the one next to him said.

"Why is that?"

"Because he gives me the creeps!"

"Shush! You shouldn't talk about the general like that!"

"You don't understand. The fact that he's coming to the lessons building is really creepy. Why in the world would he want to come here in the first place?"

"I heard that he wants to see how those who are going to get the spine will hold during the operation. He's trying to see who is the strongest."

"That gives me even more creeps. Why cant he just leave the larva alone?"

"Well, seeing how much you know him, you should understand why General Ridley would want to see something like that..."

They ran off, and I stopped, since they were leaving into a restricted zone. I was trying to figure out who Ridley was. The name had been mentioned before, but I never new what he was, or what he looked like. If he was a general, then things might be interesting for a while. I decided to return to my room again.

Once I reached my room, walked up to my bed and sat down. I didn't feel like doing anything all of a sudden. I suppose it was because of the impending spine implant. I had been so invigorated throughout the cycle, but now, I suddenly felt odd. I looked at my clock. It was near the final millicycles of the cycle. I sighed. The cycle had gone by fast. I wondered what life after the spine would be like. I would leave this planet, then, and I could see all of the planets out there. The sky. The stars. The grass. The trees. All of it. I wanted to see it all so much. I just hoped that when I did, I wasn't being overwhelmed by our enemy. I thought for a bit. Who was our enemy, anyways? No-one had ever told me or anyone else who they were. I wondered if they were as amazing looking as everything else out there.

I looked at my calendar. This cycle was only 20 cycles away from the final cycle of lessons. But I was certain that the lessons wouldn't end there. I laid down in my bed, and looked upwards, imagining that I was on the planet of green again.

Well, that's it. Please review!